1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for providing streaming content, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for providing media content using adaptive streaming.
2. Description of the Related Art
Streaming is one of schemes for transmitting and playing back multimedia content such as sounds, moving images, and the like. A client may play back content while receiving the content through the streaming.
An adaptive streaming service refers to providing a streaming service employing a communication scheme with a request of a client and a response of a server corresponding to the request.
The client may request a media sequence suitable for an environment of the client (for example, a transmission channel of the client), using the adaptive streaming service. The server may provide a media sequence matched to the request of the client among media sequences with various qualities that are included in the server.
The adaptive streaming service may be provided based on various protocols.
A Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) adaptive streaming service refers to an adaptive streaming service provided based on an HTTP. A client of the HTTP adaptive streaming service may receive content from a server using the HTTP, and may transmit a request associated with a streaming service to the server.
Currently, a method of streaming a moving image while downloading the moving image using a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or an HTTP is widely used. In a Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), that is, a standardization group that sets standards for moving images, a method of streaming a moving image while downloading the moving image using an HTTP through a project called “Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH)” has been standardized. An existing TCP- or HTTP-based moving image transmission method, and a method of classifying a single program into segments divided in a unit of time, sequentially downloading the segments and playing back the program in an MPEG-DASH are used. In the above process, an appropriate bandwidth or a type of moving images may be selected based on an environment of a terminal or a network.